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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


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Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


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n 


D 
D 


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Couverture  endommagde 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurde  et/ou  pelliculde 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


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Coloured  pages/ 
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Pages  damaged/ 
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D 


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10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


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24X 


28X 


32X 


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du 

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une 

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The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
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L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grAce  A  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

D.  B.  Waldon  Library 
University  of  Wettarn  Ontario 

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plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetd  de  l'exemplaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimie  sont  filmAs  en  commen9ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmis  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaltra  sur  la 
derniire  image  de  chaque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  — ^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN  ". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
film6s  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  film6  A  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


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Photomoun* 


'i^--*  <i  ■.  ■■■■      • 


THE  HISTORIC  POLICY  OF  TilF.  UNITED 
STATES  AS  TO  ANNEXATION. 


A  PAPKR  READ  HEFORE  THE 

AMERICAN    HISTORICAL   ASSOCIATION, 
AT  Chicago,  July  i;^,  1893. 


Hv  8iMK0N   K.   liALDWlN,   LL.I)., 

PUKtJlDKNT  OF   THE    Nuw    IIaVKN    CoLOXY    IIlSTJIUOAL   SouiKTV. 


RkIMMNIKI)    KICOM     rilli    ••  VaI.K    ItKVIEW"    KOIC    AldUrtT,     \H'Xi. 


x> 


•  -♦♦♦-■ 


-"  ■«i'.',    -.,    ""C    ■■  ■. 


*„■ 


/ 


Nkw  Haven  : 

IIOUOHDN    &    ROHINSON,     I'KINTKKS. 

1893. 


Uifim 


Pliotomount 


THE    inSTORIC    POLICY   OF  THE    UNITED    STATES 
AS   TO   ANNEXATION. 


The  United  States,  according  to  President  Lincoln, 
was  "  formed  in  fact  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in 
F774."  liut  the  self-styled  "  Continental  Congress,"  which 
framed  those  Articles,  represented  and  claimed  to  repre- 
sent but  a  small  portion  of  the  American  continent.  The 
eleven  colonies,  vhosc  delegates  met  at  Carpenters  Hall, 
October  20th,  1774.  and  those  of  the  three  counties  of 
Delaware  who  sat  with  them  on  equal  terms,  though 
real!}'  a  part  of  the  proprietary  government  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, were  in  actual  possession  of  but  a  narrow  strip  of 
territory  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  running  back  no 
farther  than  the  line  of  the  Alleghanies.  To  the  south- 
ward lay  Georgia,  East  Florida,  West  Florida  and 
Louisiana;  to  the  northward  Nova  Scotia,  and  Canada; 
and  on  their  western  frontiers  Parliament  had  recently 
put  the  boundary  of  the  new  Province  of  Quebec. 

It  was  the  hope  of  Congress  that  their  ranks  might  be 
swelled  by  the  accession  ot  all  the  British  colonies  or 
provinces  on  our  continent.  On  October  26th  a  stirring 
appeal  to  unite  in  the  Articles  of  Association,  adopted 
two  days  before,  was  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Quebec.  "  We  defy  you,"  wrote  Congress,  "  casting 
your  view  upon  every  side,  to  discover  a  single  circum- 
stance, promising  from  an}'  quarter  the  faintest  hope  of 
liberty  to  you  or  your  posterity,  but  from  an  entire 
adoption  into  the  Union  of  these  colonies."  .... 
"  What,"  it  was  urged,  "  would  your  great  countryman, 
Montesquieu,  say  to  you,  were  he  living  to-day?  Would 
not  this  be  the  purport  of  his  address?  '  Seize  the  oppor- 
tunity presented  to  you  by  Providence  itself.  You  have 
been  conquered  into  liberty,  if  you  act  as  you  ought. 
This  work  is  not  of  man.  You  are  a  small  people,  com- 
pared to  those  who  with  open  arms  invite  you  into  a 
fellowship.     A  moment's  reflection  should  convince  you 


f'^mm^ 


which  will  be  most  for  your  intcest  and  happiness,  to 
have  all  the  rest  of  North  America  your  unalterable 
friends,  or  your  inveterate  enemies.  The  injuries  of 
Boston  have  roused  and  associated  every  colony  from 
Nova  Scotia  to  Geor<;ia.  Your  province  is  the  only  link 
wanting  to  complete  the  brio^ht  and  strong  chain  of  union. 
Nature  has  joined  vour  country  to  theirs.  Do  you  join 
your  political  interests,'  .  .  .  .  "  VVe  are  too  well 
actjuainted  with  the  liberality  of  sentiment  disting'uishiniJ^ 
your  nation  to  imaj^inc  that  difference  of  religion  will 
prejudice  you  ai^ainst  a  hearty  amity  with  us.  You  know 
that  the  transcendent  nature  of  freedom  elevates  those 
who  unite  in  her  cause  above  all  such  low  minded  infirm- 
ities."' 

The  address  concluded  with  the  recommendation  that 
they  should  choose  a  IVovincial  Contrrcss,  which  might 
send  delegates  to  the  next  ContincMital  Congress  to  be 
held  at  Fhiladcli)hia  in  May,  1775,  and  formally  accede  to 
the  existing  confederation,  so  that  in  resisting  future 
aggressions  they  might  rely  no  longer  on  the  small 
influence  of  a  single  i)i"ovince,  "  but  on  the  consolidated 
powers  of  North  America." 

The  Annual  Register  for  1775  truly  says  that  "of  all 
the  papers  published  bv  the  American  Congress,  their 
address  to  the  French  mhabitants  of  Canada  discovered 
the  most  dextrous  management,  and  the  most  able  method 
of  aj)plication  to  the  tempei"  and  passions  of  the  parties 
whom  they  endeavored  to  gaui."' 

A  corresiM)ndence  with  Canadian  patriots  was  also  be- 
gun by  the  Massachusetts  committee  of  safety,  and  Sam- 
uel Adams  was  j)articularly  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  gain 
their  sui)i)ort. 

In  May,  1775,  another  address  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Canada  was  adopted  by  Congress,  from  the  pen  of  Jay. 
It  declared  that  "  the  fate  of  the  Protestant  and  Catholic 
colonies  was  strongly  linked  together,"  and  that  Congress 
yet  eniertained  hopes  of  a  union  with  them  in  the  defence 
of  their  common  liberty.^ 


'  Jonrnnis  of  Conpress,  I,  04. 
*  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  109. 


History  of  Europe,  32. 


Pliotomount 


5 


During  the  session  of  this  Congress,  an  address  from 
the  inhabitants  of  several  parishes  in  Bermuda  was  re- 
ceived, and  a  Canadian  once  appeared  upon  the  floor. 
In  November,  the  inhabitants  of  a  district  in  Nova  Scotia, 
which  had  elected  a  committee  of  safety,  applied  for 
admission  into  "  the  Association  of  the  United  Colonies. '' 

The  proceedings  of  this  Congress  have  come  down  to 
us  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  state,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
it  was  not  deemed  safe  to  print  in  the  official  journals  all 
that  was  done.  After  forty  years,  a  large  part  of  what 
was  originally  suppressed  was  published  by  the  govern- 
ment, under  the  style  of  the  "  Secret  Journals  of  Con- 
gress," but  no  attempt  was  made  to  combine  the  two 
records  or  to  s'lpply  an  index  to  the  whole. 

[n  July,  1775,  Dr.  Franklin  brought  forward  a  plan 
which  had  apparently  been  drawn  up  for  submission  in 
May,  for  "  Articles  of  Confederation  and  f'erpetual  Union  " 
between  "  the  United  Colonies  of  North  America."  They 
provided  for  the  accession  of  all  the  other  British  Colon- 
ies on  the  Continent,  that  is,  Ouebec,  St.  John's,  Nova 
Scotia,  East  and  West  Florida,  and  the  I^ermuda  Islands." 
Notwithstanding  the  care  taken  to  suppress  this  pro- 
ceeding, a  copy  of  the  {)aper  got  across  the  ocean  and 
was  printed  in  full  in  the  Annual  Register  for  1775.' 

In  the  latter  part  of  this  year,  C(Migress  despatched 
agents  to  Canada  and  others  to  Nova  Scotia  to  inquire 
particularly  into  the  disposition  of  their  inhabitants  re- 
specting a  union  of  interests  with  the  more  Southern 
Colonies.  The  Assembly  of  Jamaica  had  sent  in  a  me- 
morial to  the  King  in  Council,  which,  while  disclaiming 
any  thought  of  forcible  resistance,  set  up  the  claims  of 
their  inhabitants  to  self-governmen*^  in  language  nearly  as 
strong  as  that  used  by  the  Continental  Congress.'*  The 
latter  bi;dy  responded  in  an  address  to  the  Assembly  of 
Jamaica,  thanking  them  for  their  sympathy,  and  saying 
that,  while  "  the  peculiar  situation  of  your  island  forbids 
your  assistance,"  they  were  glad  at  least  to  have  their 
good  wishes. 


'  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  230,  244.     *  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  288. 
»  State  Papers,  252.  *  Ann.  Reg.  for  1775 ;  Hist,  of  Europe,  101. 


Soon  afterwards  three  commissioners  were  appointed 
to  repair  to  the  Northern  frontier,  and  endeavor  "to  in- 
duce the  Canadians  to  accede  to  a  union  with  these  Col- 
onies "  and  to  send  dek'f^ates  to  Con<;ress.'  The  com- 
missioners   were    autiiorized    to   pledj^e    them    "the    free 


enjoyment   of  theii-  rehj^i 


on 


>ij 


and  to  raise,  it  possible,  a 


ibl( 


Canadian  rcjj^iment  for  the  Continental  army.  A  few 
men  did  enlist,  and  such  accessions  were  received  from 
time  to  time  that  at  last  a  lull  rc^^iment  was  organized 
and  officered,  and  a  second  one  projected.' 

Rarlv  in  1776  another  set  of  cotumissioners,  headed  by 
Franklin,  were  dispatched  directly  to  Canada  on  a  similar 
errand,  bearing  addresses  from  Congress,  which  were 
printed  in  French  and  English,  and  circulated  extensively 
among  the  people.^  The  instructions  of  the  commissioners 
were  to  assure  the  Canadians  that  their  interests  and  ours 
were  insej)arably  united,  and  to  urge  them  to  join  us  as  a 
"  sister  colony." 

No  imj)ression  seemed  to  be  made  by  the  addresses, 
and  it  was  soon  discovered  that  quite  an  adequate  reason 
existed  in  the  fact  that  not  one  out  of  live  hundred  of  the 
jiopidation  could  read.  Dr.  I'ranklin,  on  his  return,  saitl 
that  if  it  were  ever  thought  best  io  send  another  mission, 
it  should  be  one  composed  of  schoolmasters.  With  a 
few  of  the  leaders  there,  Franklin  had  better  success, 
and  during  a  fortnight  something  like  a  jjrovisional 
government  was  set  up,  under  his  ausjjices,  which,  how- 
ever, melteci  into  thin  air  on  the  approach  of  British 
troops.' 

In  June,  1776,  Congress  sent  two  ships  to  the  13ermudas, 
carrying  provisions,  to  relieve  the  distress  caused  by  our 
non-importatiun  association,  and  with  directions  to  iiuiuiie 
into  the  disposition  of  the  inhabitants,  respecting  a  union 
of  interests  with  ours.* 


'  Washington  strongly  urj^cs  this  course,  in  liis  iett(Ms  from  civnip.     Writ- 
iiij^s;  Spariv's  Ed.  iii,  173. 
'  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  242. 
•*  Wrilinjrs  of  Washington,  Sp.arks'  Ed.,  iv,  2(J7. 

*  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  42.  *  .Journals  of  Congnss.  I,  305. 

■^  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  46. 


PhotomounI 


It  is  probable  that  the  report  was  not  encourai^injr,  for 
when  in  July,  1776,  Franklin's  scheme  for  confederation 
was  reported  on  by  the  committee  which  had  had  it  under 
consideration  for  a  year,  the  provision  for  brinj^ing  in  the 
other  Itlnij^lish  colonic^s  was  struck  out,  except  so  far  as  re- 
lated to  Canada.  She  was  to  have  the  right  to  admission 
on  request,  but  no  other  colony  was  to  be  admitted  with- 
out the  consent  of  nine  States.' 

Provision  was  made  by  Congress,  as  soon  as  these  Arti- 
cles were  agreed  on  and  sent  out  to  the  -States  for  ratifica- 
tion, (Nov.  29,  1777)  for  haviiig  them  translated  into  I'^rench 
and  circulated  among  the  Canadians,  with  an  invitation 
**  to  accede  to  the  union  of  these  States."^ 

Our  invasions  of  their  territory,  however,  and  their  ill- 
success,  had  left  little  of  the  spirit  of  united  resistance  to 
British  authority.  Had  the  declaration  of  inde[KMidence 
been  made  as  early  as  the  more  fiery  patriots  would  have 
had  it,  it  is  not  impossible  that  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia 
would  have  been  swept  into  the  current.  Samuel  Adams 
wrote  in  July,  177C,  to  a  Iricnd,  that  had  it  come  in  1775, 
Canada,  in  his  opinion  '*  would  at  this  time  have  been  one 
of  the  United  Colonies."' 

In  the  fall  of  1776,  Franklin,  then  about  to  sail  on  his 
European  mission,  submitted  to  the  secret  committee  of 
Congress  his  scheme  for  proposals  of  peace.  These  were 
that  Great  Britain  should  acknowledge  our  independence, 
and  sell  us  Quebec,  St.  John's,  Nova  Scotia,  Bermuda, 
East  and  West  Florida  and  the  Bahamas.  In  addition  tt) 
payment  of  the  purchase  money,  we  were  to  grant  free 
trade  to  all  British  subjects,  and  guarantee  to  Great  Bri- 
tain her  West  India  islands.  In  the  paper  ex[)laining  this 
scheme,  Franklin  states  that,  as  to  the  colonies  to  be  pur- 
chased, "it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  us  to  have  them 
for  our  own  security.""* 


'  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  I,  290:  Annual  Register  for  1776.  Stiite 

Papers,  p.  209. 
'  Seen  t  Journals  of  Congress,  II,  rA.     "  Life  of  Samuel  Atluins,  II,  434 
*  Franklin's  Works,  I,  143. 


mi^ 


8 


N 


In  letters  to  English  friends,  while  in  France,  he 
expressed  similar  views,  saying  that  discord  would  con- 
tinually  arise  on  the  frontiers  unless  peace  were  cemented 
by  the  cession  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  Floridas.' 

John  Adams  entertained  opinions  of  the  same  kind.  In 
April,  1782,  while  in  Holland,  he  was  advised  by  Henry 
Laurens,  one  of  our  foreign  commissioners  who  had  been 
captured  by  a  r3ritish  man-of-war,  and  put  in  the  Tower 
on  a  charge  of  treason,  but  was  now  at  large  on  parole, 
that  many  of  the  opposition  in  England  favored  the  sur- 
render of  Canada  and  Nova  vScotia.  Mr.  Adams  replied 
that  he  feared  that  we  could  never  have  a  real  peace,  with 
Canada  or  Nova  Scotia  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  and 
that  at  least  we  should  sti[)ulate  in  any  treaty  of  peace 
that  they  should  keep  no  troops  or  fortified  places  on  the 
frontiers  of  either.' 

A  few  days  later.  Dr.  Franklin  subtnitted  to  Mr.  Oswald, 
with  whom,  as  the  Commissioner  of  Great  Britain,  the 
treaty  of  peace  was  afterwards  negotiated,  a  paper  sug- 
gesting the  dangers  of  maintaining  a  long  frontier  be- 
tween  countries  the  roughest  of  whose  people  would 
always  inhabit  their  borders  and  outposts,  and  that  Great 
Britain  might  well  cede  Canada  to  us,  on  conditions  of  a 
perpetual  guaranty  of  free  trade  vvitli  that  province,  and 
a  provision  for  indemnity  for  the  losses  both  of  Canadian 
loyalists  and  of  Americans  whose  property  had  been 
burned  in  B'itish  invasions,  out  of  the  proceeds  of  sales 
of  the  public  lands  remaining  ungranted.' 

The  influence  of  France  was  from  the  first  thrown 
against  the  enlargement  of  the  United  States  by  the  ac- 
cession of  any  more  of  the  British  Colonies.  As  most  of 
these  had  once  been  hers,  she  doubtless  hoped  that  they 
might,  some  day,  become  again  part  of  their  mother 
country.  Our  treaty  with  her,  of  1778,  stipulated  that 
should  she  capture  any  of  the  British  West  India  islands, 
it  should  be  for  her  own  benefit,  while  if  we  should  occupy 

'  Franklin's  Works,  I,  811. 

"^  Sec  Wiishington's  letter  to  Landon  Carter,  of  May  30,  1778,  to  the  same 

effect.     Writings,  Spark's  Ed.,  v,  389. 
»  Franklin's  Works,  I,  480. 


Ptiotomount 


the  Northern  colonies  or  the  Bermudas,  they  should  "  be 
confederate  with  or  dependent  upon  the  said  United 
States." 


The  adoption  of  the  present  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  in  abrogating,  by  the  voice  of  the  majority,  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  was  a  revolutionary  proceeding, 
which  threw  two  States  out  of  the  Union.  North  Caro- 
lina and  Rhode  Island,  by  refusing  to  ratify  the  woric  of 
the  Convention  of  1787,  put  themselves  for  a  time  certainly 
very  near  the  position  of  foreign  States.  This  conse- 
quence of  their  action  was  strongly  urged  in  the  North 
Carolina  convention.  "  In  my  opiniim  "  said  Gov.  John- 
son, one  of  its  members,  "if  we  refuse  to  ratify  the 
Constitution,  we  shall  be  entirely  out  of  the  Union,  antl 
can  be  considered  only  as  a  foreign  power.  It  is  true 
the  United  States  may  admit  us  hereafter.  But  they  may 
admit  us  on  terms  unequal  and  disadvantageous  to  us." 
'*  It  is  objected,"  replied  the  next  speaker,  "  we  shall  be 
out  of  the  Union.  So  I  wish  to  be.  We  are  left  at  liberty 
to  come  in  at  any  time."'  "  In  my  opinion,  said  James 
Iredell,  afterwards  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  "  when  any  State  has  once  rejected  the 
Constitution,  it  cannot  claim  to  come  in  afterwards  as  a 
matter  of  right.  If  it  does  not  in  plain  terms  reject,  but 
refuses  to  accede  for  the  present,  I  think  the  other  States 
may  regard  this  as  an  absolute  rejection,  and  refuse  to 
admit  us  afterwards,  but  at  their  pleasure,  and  on  what 
terms  they  please."'^ 

When,  however,  in  1789  and  1790  these  States  reluc- 
tantly sent  in  their  ratifications,  no  question  was  made 
about  receiving  them  on  equal  terms  with  those  by  which 
the  new  government  had  been  originally  organized,  and 
they  came  in  on  a  footing  of  right. 

The  United  States  of  1789  was  in  many  respects  a 
political  combination  of  foreign  communities.  The  At- 
lantic was  almost  the  sole  means  of  communication 
between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States.     The  Hud- 


Elliot's  Debates,  IV,  223,  4. 


2  Ibid  231. 


!^-m^^ 


lO 


son  helped  to  bind  Eastern  New  Enji^land  to  New  York ; 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  mic^ht  lead  from  one  scat- 
tered settlement  to  another;  but  of  those  who  lived 
twenty  miles  from  navij^able  water,  it  was  only  the  favored 
or  the  adventurous  few  who  had  ever  visited  any  State, 
except  their  own. 

To  such  a  people  there  could  be  nothinp^  startling-  in  the 
acquisition  of  foreio^n  territory.  It  could  hardly  be  more 
foreign  than  much  that  was  already  within  the  Union.  It 
could  hardly  be  more  distant,  for  a  voyage  from  Phila- 
delphia to  London  or  Marseilles  took  less  time  and  money, 
and  involved  less  risk  and  hardship,  than  a  trip  to  Cincin- 
nati or  Natchez. 

Gouverneur  Morris  said,  at  the  time  of  the  Louisiana 
purchase,  that  he  had  known  since  the  day  when  the 
Constitution  was  adopted  that  all  North  i\merica  must  at 
length  be  annexed.' 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  both  England 
and  America  regarded  the  long  frontier  on  the  north  of 
the  United  States  as  not  unlikely  to  be  soon  the  scene  of 
renewed  hostilities.  John  Adams,  in  October,  1785, 
writes  from  abroad  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  that  some 
of  the  opposition  in  Great  Britain  were  saying  "  that 
Canaui  and  Nova  Scotia  must  soon  be  ours;  there  must 
be  a  war  for  it ;  they  know  how  it  will  end,  but  the  sooner 
the  better;  this  done,  we  shall  be  forever  at  peace;  till 
then,  never."* 

But  we  had  a  boundary  still  more  difficult  to  the  south- 
ward. The  end  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  in  Europe  had 
seen  France  cede  to  Spain  New  Orleans,  with  so  much  of 
her  Louisiana  territory  as  lay  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  rest  to  Great  Britain.  A  cession  from  Spain  of  her 
claims  on  the  Floridas  had  conhrmed  these  as  English 
possessions,  and  made  the  Mississippi  their  western  bound- 
ary, but  during  our  Revolutionary  War,  Spain  had 
recaptured  them,  and  her  title  was  confirmed  by  the 
peace  of  1783. 

In  1800,  Spain  ceded  back  her  Louisiana  territories  to 


Wiitiugs,  iii,  185. 


»  Works,  viii,  333. 


Photomounf 


II 


France,  and  the  century  opened  with  Spain  bounding  us 
below  Georgia,  and  France  hemming  us  in  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  by  an  undefined  and,  perhaps,  in- 
definable stretch  of  territory  running  from  the  Gulf  up 
towards  the  Canadian  line. 

The  leaders  of  the  Revolutionary  period  who  survived 
were  united  in  the  belief  that  it  was  vital  to  our  interests 
to  acquire  the  French  title.  Hamilton,"  John  Adams'  and 
Gouvcrneur  Morris,'  were  of  this  mind,  not  less  than 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Livingston. 

There  was  a  serious  question  as  to  our  right  to  make 
the  purchase,  and  the  administration  represented  the  party 
which  regarded  the  government  as  one  of  delegated 
powers  to  be  strictly  c(jnstrued.  The  great  leader  of  the 
other  school,  Daniel  Webster,  declared,  in  1837,  during 
the  heat  of  the  controversy  over  the  admission  of  Texas, 
that  he  did  not  believe  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
contemplated  the  annexation  of  foreign  territory,  and 
that,  for  his  part,  he  believed  it  to  be  for  the  interest  of 
the  Union  "  to  remain  as  it  is,  without  diminution  and 
without  addition."^  We  have  now,  however,  more  light 
as  to  the  real  intention  of  the  founders,  from  the  published 
letters  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  whose  pen  put  the  Consti- 
tution in  form.  No  "  decree  dc  crescendo  imperioy  he 
wrote  at  the  time  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  was  inserted 
in  it,  because  no  boundaries  could  be  wisely  or  safely  as- 
signed to  our  future  expansion.  "  I  knew  as  well  then  as 
I  do  now  that  all  North  America  must  at  length  be 
annexed  to  us, — happy,  indeed,  if  the  lust  of  possession 
stop  there."'' 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  had  been  intended  to  keep  the 
Union  forever  within  the  limits  then  existing,  we  may  be 
sure  that  an  express  prohibition  would  have  been  inserted. 
This  was  Gallatin's  view  when  Jefferson  consulted  his 
cabinet  as  to  the  Louisiana  negotiation.  The  adverse 
position,  he  wrote  to  the  President,  must  be  that  '*  the 
United  States  are  precluded  from  and  renounce  altogether 


'  Works,  vi,  402. 

'  Writings,  iii,  185. 

^  Diary  ami  Woriis,  ii,  442. 


«  Life  and  Worlis,  ix,  031. 
♦  Works,  i,  357. 


fm^^f^'^  MHi'lHi 


li 


12 

the  enlargement  of  territory,  a  provision  sufficiently  im- 
portant and  singular  to  have  deserved  to  be  expressly 
inserted."  Jefferson's  reply  to  this  letter  shows  his  own 
opinion  more  fully  than  it  is  elsewhere  given  in  his  cor- 
respondence. "  There  is,"  he  wrote.  "  no  constitutional 
difficulty  as  to  the  acquisition  of  territory,  and  whether, 
when  acquired,  it  may  be  taken  into  the  Union  by  the 
Constitution  as  it  now  stands,  will  become  a  question  of 
expediency."' 

It  was  a  time,  moreover,  for  action  rather  than  for 
deliberation.  Between  a  question  of  constitutional  con- 
struction on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  a  possible 
French  army  under  a  Napoleon,  ascending  the  Mississippi 
to  reconquer  a  New  World,  the  administration  was  not 
disposed  to  hesitate  long  as  to  the  choice.  Jefferson 
made  the  purchase,  and  the  people  approved  the  act. 
Never  were  fifteen  millions  of  American  money  better 
spent. 

The  next  opportunity  to  add  to  our  possessions  came 
in  1819,  when  we  bought  the  Floridas  of  Spain,  or  at  least 
a  release  of  her  title  and  pretensions  to  them,  and  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  being  soon  after- 
wards called  upon  to  say  what  relation  we  bore  to  the 
new  acquisition,  held,  to  the  surprise  of  some  of  the  strict 
constructionists  among  our  public  men,  that  the  right  of 
the  United  States  to  wage  war  and  to  make  treaties  nec- 
essarily implied  the  right  to  acquire  new  territory,  whether 
by  conquest  or  purchase.  This  decision  came  from  the 
lips  of  our  greatest  Chief  Justice,  John  Marshall,  and 
has  been  repeatedly  reaffirmed  by  his  successors  on  the 
bench.-' 

Neither  the  Louisiana  nor  the  Florida  purchase  had 
presented  the  question  of  the  absorption  of  a  foreign 
sovereignty  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  had 
finally  acceded  to  the  Union,  not  in  such  a  character,  but 
as  having  been  members  with  the  other  States  of  a  per- 
petual Confederation,  for  which  there  had  been  substi- 
tuted a  new  form  of  government. 


'  Gallatin's  Writings,  i,  114. 

»  Mormou  Church,  v.  United  States,  130  U.  S.  Kep.,  1,  42. 


Photomouni 
^P«mphl«t 


13 

In  1836,  however,  came  an  application  by  the  republic 
of  Texas  for  admission  into  the  Union,  as  a  new  and  equal 
State. 

The  dominant  population  there  had  always  been  com- 
posed of  immigrants  from  the  United  States.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  when  President,  had  endeavored  to  buy 
it  from  Mexico,'  and  similar  propositions  from  President 
Jackson  had  also  been  made  without  success."  In  1836, 
Texas  claimed  to  have  achieved  her  independence,  and 
sent  commissioners  to  Washington  to  negotiate  a  treaty 
of  annexation.  Mexico  regarded  her  still  as  one  of  her 
provinces,  and  the  United  States  delayed  recognition  of 
the  new  government  until  it  should  have  proved  its  ability 
to  defend  its  own  existence.  This  was  deemed  sufficiently 
established  after  a  year  or  two,  and  we,  as  well  as  the 
leading  European  powers,  mainta.ned  diplomatic  relations 
with  Texas  for  several  years,  while  the  question  of  annex- 
ation was  pending. 

The  opposition  to  the  measure  was  led  by  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  introduced  into  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, in  1838,  this  resolution: 

''Resolved,  That  the  power  of  annexing  the  people  of 
any  independent  foreign  state  to  this  Union  is  a  power 
not  delegated  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
their  congress,  or  to  any  department  of  their  government, 
but  reserved  by  the  people.  That  any  attempt  by  act  of 
congress  or  by  treaty  would  be  a  usurpation  of  power, 
unlawful  and  void,  and  which  it  would  be  the  right  and 
the  duty  of  the  free  people  of  the  Union  to  resist  and 
annul." 


If,  he  said,  Texas  is  annexed,  it  would  be  such  a  viola- 
tion of  our  national  compact  as  "  not  only  inevitably  to 
result  in  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  but  fully  to  justify  it, 
and  we  not  only  assert  that  the  people  of  the  free  States 
ought  not  to  submit  to  it,  but  we  say  with  confidence 
that  they  would  not  submit  to  it." 

On  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  Southern  leaders 
announced  that  if  Texas  were  not  annexed,  and  thus  an 


lu  1827.     Diary,  vii,  239.        '^  Jacksou  offered  15,000,000  for  it  in  1835. 


ff^R^^tlHP^ 


u 


opportunity  offered  for  the  extension  of  slavery,  there 
would  be  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  by  the  act  of  the 
South. 

Early  in  1844,  a  treaty  of  annexation  was  concluded, 
but  the  Senate  rejected  it  by  a  vole  of  more  than  two  to 
one.  The  admission  of  Texas  was  made  the  main  issue 
in  the  Presidential  election  of  the  year.  The  Democratic 
party  favored  it  in  their  platform,  and  won  a  decisive 
victory.  President  Tyler,  thereupon,  in  his  message  to 
Congress  at  its  December  session,  recommended  that  the 
verdict  of  the  people  be  ratified  by  an  Act  of  annexation, 
which  should  adopt  and  make  into  law  the  terms  of  agree- 
ment already  agreed  on  by  the  two  governments. 

A  compromise  bill  was  passed,  by  which  the  consent  of 
Congress  was  given  to  the  erection  of  Texas  into  a  new 
State  o(  the  United  States,  but  the  President  was  authoi-- 
ized,  should  he  deem  it  better  to  accomplish  the  same 
purpose  by  a  treaty,  to  proceed  in  that  manner.  Presi- 
dent Tyler  promptly  approved  the  Act,  and  believing 
that  any  treaty  he  might  negotiate  would  fail  in  the 
Senate,  proceeded  under  the  legislative  clause,  and  on  the 
last  day  of  his  term  of  office  hurried  off  an  envoy  to 
Texas  to  obtain  the  consent  of  that  Republic.  This  was 
promptly  given,  and  Texas,  therefore,  came  into  the 
Union  in  1845,  "Ot-  by  treaty  but  by  virtue  of  a  statute  of 
the  United  States  supported  by  similar  legislation  of  her 
own.  . 

It  is  obvious  that  this  mode  of  proceeding  trenched 
directly  on  the  importance  of  the  States,  in  so  far  as  they 
can  be  regarded  as  constituents  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment. Treaty  making  was  confided  by  the  Constitution 
exclusively  to  the  President  and  Senate,  while  the  com- 
position of  the  Senate  vvas  made  such  as  not  only  to 
secure,  upon  every  question  of  that  nature,  an  equal  voice 
to  each  State,  but  to  guaranty  a  minority  of  the  States 
against  being  overborne  by  anything  less  than  two-thirds 
ol  all.  The  Texas  precedent  gave  the  popular  branch 
equal  powers  as  to  the  admission  of  a  foreign  State,  and 
made  the  votes  of  a  bare  majority  ot  the  upper  house 
sufficient. 


!!! 


Photomount 
Pamphltt 


cry,  there 
act  of  the 

concluded, 
an  two  to 
iiain  issue 
'cmocratic 
a  decisive 
lessag'c  to 
d  that  the 
mexation, 
5  of  agrce- 

5. 

consent  of 
ito  a  new 
IS  author- 
the  same 
r.     Presi- 
beh'eving 
il    in    the 
id  on  the 
"nvoy  to 
This  was 
into    the 
tatute  of 
n  of  her 

renched 

as  they 

govern- 

stitution 

he  com- 

only   to 

lal  voice 

~  States 

o-thirds 

branch 

ate,  and 

r  house 


15 


From  a  very  early  period  Cuba  has  been  regarded  by 
leading  Southern  statesmen  as  a  desirable  acquisition  for 
us.  In  1809,  Jefferson  wrote  in  regard  to  this  to  Presi- 
dent Madison,  that  "  it  will  be  objected  to  our  receiving 
Cuba  that  no  limit  can  then  be  drawn  to  our  future 
accjuisitions.  Cuba  can  be  defended  by  us  without  a 
navy  :  and  this  develops  the  principle  which  ought  to 
limit  our  views.  Nothing  should  ever  be  accepted  which 
would  require  a  navy  to  defend  it."' 

A  few  years  later,  John  Quincy  Adams,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  in  his  instructions  to  our  minister  to  Spain,  wrote 
that  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  were  natural  appendages  to  our 
continent,  and  Cuba  had  become  "  an  object  of  transcend- 
ent importance  to  the  commercial  and  political  interests 
of  our  Union.  Its  commanding  position,  with  reference 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  West  India  seas;  the 
character  of  its  population;  its  situation  midway  between 
our  southern  coast  and  the  island  of  San  Domingo ;  its 
safe  and  capacious  harbor  of  Havana,  fronting  a  long  line 
of  our  [,hores  destitute  of  the  same  advantage ;  the  nature 
of  its  productions  and  of  its  wants,  furnishing  the  supplies 
and  needing  the  returns  of  a  commerce  immensely  profit- 
able and  mutually  beneficial,  give  it  an  importance  in  the 
sum  of  our  national  interests  with  which  that  of  no  other 
foreign  territory  can  be  compared,  and  little  inferior  to 
that  which  binds  the  different  members  of  this  Union 
together.  Such,  indeed,  are,  between  the  interests  of  that 
island  and  of  this  country,  the  geographical,  commercial, 
moral,  and  political  relations  formed  by  nature,  gathering 
in  the  process  of  time,  and  even  now  verging  to  maturity, 
that,  in  looking  forward  to  the  probable  course  of  events 
for  the  short  period  of  half  a  century,  it  is  scarcely  possi- 
ble to  resist  the  conviction  that  the  annexation  of  Cuba  to 
our  Federal  Republic  will  be  indispensable  to  the  contin- 
uance and  integrity  of  the  Union  itself. 

"  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  for  this  event  we  are  not 
yet  prepared.  Numerous  and  formidable  objections  to 
the   extension    of  our   territorial   dominions    beyond    sea 

'  Sec  also  John  Quincy  Adams'  Diary,  v,  38. 


f-^^y-^ 


i6 


present  themselves  to  the  first  contemplation  of  the  sub- 
ject;  obstacles  to  the  system  of  policy  by  which  alone 
tiiat  result  can  be  compassed  and  maintained  are  to  be 
foreseen  and  surmounted,  both  from  at  home  and  abroad  ; 
but  there  are  laws  of  political  as  well  as  of  physical  gravita- 
tion ;  and  if  an  apple,  severed  by  the  tempest  from  its 
native  tree,  cannot  choose  but  fall  to  the  ground,  Cuba, 
forcibly  disjoined  from  its  own  unnatural  connection  with 
Spain,  and  incapable  of  self-support,  can  gravitate  only 
towards  the  North  American  Uniim,  which,  by  the  same 
law  of  nature,  cannot  cast  her  off  from  its  bosom."' 


:   il 


i  I 


The  immediate  object  in  view  was  to  [)revent  Great 
Britain  from  acquiiing  Cuba.  Jefferson  wrote  to  F^resi- 
dent  Moin-oe,  at  about  the  same  time  (1823)  that,  should 
Great  Britain  take  it,  he  would  not  be  for  going  to  war 
for  it,  "  because  the  first  war  on  other  accounts  will  give 
it  to  us,  or  the  island  will  give  itself  to  us  when  able  to 
do  so."  If  we  could  get  it  peaceably,  he  said,  it  "  would 
till  up  the  measure  of  our  well  being."  President  Polk 
tried  to  buy  it  from  Spi  n,  and  a  hundred  millions  is  said 
to  have  been  the  sum  otFered. 

in  1852,  Great  Britain  and  France  proposed  to  us  the 
formation  of  a  tripartite  agreement,  by  which  each  power 
should  disclaim  forever  any  intention  to  obtain  possession 
of  the  island,  and  all  undertake  to  discountenance  any 
attempts  to  acquire  it  on  the  part  of  any  other  govern- 
ment, [^resident  Fillmore  declined  the  overture,  but  in 
referring  to  it  in  his  annual  message,  said,  that  were  Cuba 
"  comparatively  destitute  of  inhabitants  or  occujiied  by  a 
kindred  race,  I  should  regard  it,  if  voluntarily  ceded  by 
Spain,  as  a  most  desirable  acquisition.  But  under  exist- 
ing circumstances,  I  should  look  upon  its  incorixjration 
into  our  Union  as  a  very  hazardijus  measure.  It  would 
bring  into  the  Confederacy  a  population  of  a  different 
national  stock,  speaking  a  different  language,  and  not 
likely  to  harmonize  with  the  other  members." 

President  Fillmore  had,  however,  proposed  and  entered 
into  a  somewhat  similar  convention,  two  years  before, 
with  Great  Britain,  with  reference  to  Central  America. 


Wharton's  Dig.  of  Int.  Law,  I,  3G1. 


|: 


17 


the  sub- 
h  alone 
re  to  be 
abroad  ; 
gravita- 
from  its 
d,  Cuba, 
on  with 
»te  only 
le  same 


t  Great 
o  f^resi- 
,  should 

to  war 
ivill  crivc 

able  to 
'  would 
nt  Polk 


s  is  said 

)  us  the 
I  power 
ssession 
ice  any 
govern- 
but  in 
e  Cuba 
id  by  a 
ded  by 
r  exist- 
-)ration 
would 
If  e  rent 
id    n(;t 

ntered 
)efore, 
1  erica. 


i 


By  this  the  contracting  parties  covenanted  that  neither 
would  ever  occupy,  colonize,  or  assume  any  dominion 
over  any  part  of  it.  Mr.  Buchanan,  while  our  min- 
ister to  England  in  1854,  in  alluding  to  this  Clayton- 
Bulwer  convention  of  April  19,  1850,  in  a  communication 
to  the  British  foreign  department,  used  this  language: 

"  Both  parties  adopted  this  self-denying  ordinance  for 
the  purpose  of  terminating  serious  misunderstandings 
then  existinj^  between  them,  which  might  have  endangered 
their  friendly  relations.  Whether  the  United  States 
acted  wisely  or  not  in  relinquishing  their  right  as  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  to  acquire  territory  in  a  region  on  their 
own  continent,  which  may  become  necessary  for  the  secu- 
rity of  their  communication  with  their  important  and 
valuable  possessions  on  the  Pacific,  is  another  and  a  differ- 
ent question.  But  they  have  concluded  the  convention  ; 
their  faith  is  pledged,  and  under  such  circumstances,  they 
never  look  behind  ilie  record." 

The  treaty  of  1848,  which  closed  the  Mexican  War,  had 
given  us,  on  payment  of  $15,000,000,  New  Mexico  and 
California,  and  in  1853  another  cession  from  Mexico — the 
**  Gadsden  purchase,"  added  Southern  Arizona  at  a  cost 
of  $10,000,000  more.  These  new  possessions  turned  pub- 
lic attention  to  the  necessity  of  a  canal  across  the  isthmus 
of  Panama,  and  it  was  in  the  negotiations  with  reference 
to  the  status  of  such  a  canal  that  the  covenant  just  men- 
tioned in  the  Clayton-Bulwer  convention  was  proposed 
by  our  government  and  accepted  by  Great  Britain.  But 
the  prospect  of  such  a  canal  made  the  command  of  the 
entrance  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  doubly  important  to  us, 
and  gave  a  new  color  to  our  diplomacy  regarding  Cuba. 
Edward  Everett,  in  one  of  his  communications  to  the 
British  minister,  when  Secretary  of  State,  in  1852,  said 
that  "  territorially  and  commercially  it  would  in  our  hands 
be  an  extremely  valuable  possession.  Under  certain 
contingencies  it  might  be  almost  essential  to  our  safety." 

The  Ostend  manifesto  of    1854  emphasized  these  con- 
siderations, and  intimated  quite  strongly  that  if  a  peace- 
ful cession  could  not  be  accomplished,  a  conquest  might 
be  dictated  by  the  law  of  self-preservation. 
8 


Ill     f     ' 

I 


f^sip^ 


^! 


ill 


I8 

President  Buchanan  devoted  three  pages  of  his  second 
annual  message,  in  1858,  to  the  Cuban  ciuestion,  referring 
U)  the  fact  that  former  administrations  had  repeatedly  en- 
deavored to  purchase  the  island.  The  increasing  trade  of 
the  Mississippi  valley,  he  said,  and  the  i)osition  of  Cuba 
as  C(3mmanding  the  mouth  of  the  river  rendered  its  pos- 
session "  of  vast  importance  to  the  United  States,"  and, 
trusting  in  the  efficacy  of  ready  money,  he  recommended 
an  appropriation  by  Congress,  to  enable  him  to  make  an 
advance  to  Spain,  should  he  be  able  to  negotiate  a  cession, 
immediately  on  the  signature  of  the  treaty,  and  before  its 
ratification  by  the  Senate.  A  bill  appropriating  $30,000,- 
000  was  thereupon  introduced  in  the  House,  and  favorably 
reported,  but  no  further  progress  was  made.  In  his 
messages  of  1859  '^"^  i860,  the  President  repeated  his 
recommendation  of  a  purchase,  urging  that  it  would  se- 
cure the  immediate  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  ;  but  the 
forces  that  were  working  towards  something  greater,  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  were  such  as  to  render  any  serious 
consideration  of  the  Cuban  question  now  impossible. 


An  Act  passed  under  the  Buchanan  administration, 
which  is  still  on  the  statute  books,  Rev.  Stat.  Title  LXXII, 
explicitly  affirms  the  power  of  the  United  States  to 
acquire  foreign  territory  by  right  of  discovery,  and  is  also 
of  importance  as  one  of  the  few  laws  by  which  large 
powers,  not  belonging  strictly  to  the  executive  function, 
have  been  placed  by  Congress  in  the  hands  of  the  President. 
This  statute  provides  that  whenever  any  of  our  citizens 
discovers  and  takes  possession  of  any  guano  deposits  on 
any  island,  rock  or  kev,  which  does  not  belong  to  any 
other  government,  "such  island,  rock  or  key  may  at  the 
discretion  of  the  President,  be  considered  as  appertainmg 
to  the  United  Stales."  All  laws  as  to  crimes  and  offences 
committed  on  the  high  seas  are  extended  over  such  places. 
Trade  m  the  guano  is  to  be  regulated  as  is  our  ordinary 
coasting  trade.  The  United  States  shall  not  be  obliged 
to  retain  possession  of  such  places  after  the  guano  has 
been  removed. 

The  island  of  Navassa,  some  two  miles  long,  lying  be- 


■1 


"nuiuniuuni 

P«mphl»t 


19 

tween  San  Domingo  and  Jamaica,  discovered  in  1857,  is 
now  a  part  of  the  United  ^States,  under  this  Act  of  1856. 
Not  long  ago  there  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons  liv- 
ing on  it,  all  engaged  in  the  removal  of  the  guano.  One 
of  them  killed  another,  and  was  promptly  punished  by 
the  Courts  of  the  United  States. 

Under  President  Lincoln's  administration,  the  country 
had  enough  to  think  of  in  trying  to  preserve  its  territory, 
without  endeavoring  to  enlarge  it.  He  did,  however, 
recommend  to  Congress  in  1861,  the  consideration  of  a 
colonization  scheme  by  which  the  freedmen  of  the  South 
and  such  of  our  free  colored  population  as  might  desire  it, 
might  be  transported  to  some  foreign  land,  where  in  a 
climate  congenial  to  them,  they  might  build  up  a  new 
community.  To  carry  out  this  plan,  "  may,"  he  said,  "  in- 
volve the  acquiring  of  territory  and  also  the  appropriation 
of  money  beyond  that  to  be  expended  in  the  territorial 
acquisition.  Having  practiced  the  acquisition  of  territory 
for  nearly  sixty  years,  the  question  of  constitutional 
power  to  do  so  is  no  longer  an  open  one  with  us.  .  •  . 
On  this  whole  proposition,  including  the  appropriation  of 
money  with  the  acquisit'on  of  territory,  does  not  the 
expediency  amount  to  absolute  necessity : — that  without 
which  the  Government  itself  cannot  be  perpetuated  ?  " 

When,  a  year  later,  slavery  was  abolished  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  $500,000  was  appropriated  to  aid  in  coloniz- 
ing such  of  the  freedmen  as  might  wish  to  emigrate,  in 
Hayti  or  Liberia.  A  few  were  aided  to  leave  the  country 
in  this  way,  most  of  whom  were  taken  by  the  government 
to  lie  a  Vache,  off  the  coast  of  New  Granada,  and  the 
rest  to  Liberia. 

Alaska  was  bought  of  Russia,  by  treaty,  in  1867,  for 
$7,200,000.  The  House  of  Representatives  insisted  for  a 
time  on  the  necessity  of  an  Act  of  Congress  to  legalize  the 
purchase,  but  the  Senate  refused  to  concur  in  this  view, 
and  the  point  was  finally  yielded.  By  this  acquisition  we 
came  into  possession  not  only  of  a  part  of  the  continent 
remote  from  our  own,  but  of  distant  islands,  some  of  them 
over  two  thousand   miles  from  the  nearest  point  of  sea 


'>wm^ 


I 


20 


coast  previously  within  our  jurisdicton.  The  test  of  con- 
tiguity, as  determining  the  right  of  annexation,  was  now, 
therefore,  finally  and  deliberately  abandoned.  It  was 
abandoned  also  with  almost  unanimous  acquiescence, 
since  there  were  but  two  votes  in  the  Senate  against  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty. 

Had  President  Jackson  had  his  way,  a  similar  position 
would  probably  have  been  taken  by  our  government 
thirty  years  before,  for.  in  1835,  he  authorized  our  minis- 
ter to  Mexico  to  offer  her  half  a  million  dollars  for  a 
cession  of  the  bay  of  San  Francisco  and  the  adjacent 
shore.' 

In  the  same  year  which  witnessed  the  purchase  of 
Alaska,  Mr.  Seward,  as  Secretary  of  vState,  also  negotiated 
a  treaty  with  Denmark  for  the  cession  of  the  West  India 
islands  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  John,  on  our  paying  her 
$7,500,000  for  them.  President  Johnson,  in  his  annual 
message  for  1867,  thus  alludes  to  their  proposed  annexa- 
tion : 


!    J 


"  In  our  revolutionary  war.  ports  and  harbors  in  the 
West  India  islands  were  used  by  our  enemy,  to  the  great 
injury  and  embarrassment  of  the  United  States.  We  had 
the  same  experience  in  our  second  war  with  Great  Britain. 
The  same  European  policy  for  a  long  time  excluded  us 
even  from  trade  with  the  West  Indies,  while  we  were  at 
peace  with  all  nations.  In  our  recent  civil  war  the  rebels, 
riiid  their  piratical  and  blockade-breaking  allies,  found 
facilities  in  the  same  ports  for  the  work,  which  they  too 
successfully  accomplished,  of  injuring  and  devastating  the 
commerce  which  we  are  now  engaged  in  rebuilding.  We 
labored  especially  under  this  disadvantage,  that  European 
steam  vessels,  employed  by  our  enemies,  found  friendly 
shelter,  protection,  and  supplies  in  West  Indian  ports, 
while  our  naval  operations  were  necessarily  carried  on 
from  our  own  distant  shores.  There  was  then  a  universal 
feeling  of  the  want  of  an  advanced  naval  outpost  between 
the  Atlantic  coast  and  Europe.  The  duty  of  obtaining 
such  an  outpost  peacefully  and  lawfully,  while  neither 
doing  nor  menacing  injury  to  other  States,  earnestly  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  the  Executive  department  before 


1  Whart.  lut.  Law  Dig.,  I,  557. 


3t 


t  of  con- 
vas  now, 
It  was 
escence, 
linst  the 

position 
ernment 
Hi"  minis- 
rs  for  a 
adjacent 


:hase  of 
gotiated 
:^st  India 
nng  her 
s  annual 
annexa- 


■s  in  the 
he  great 

We  had 

Britain, 
uded  us 

were  at 
le  rebels, 
s,  found 
they  too 
iting  the 
ig.  We 
uropean 
friendly 
n  ports, 
Tied  on 
iniversal 
between 
btaining 

neither 
estly  en- 
t  before 


the  close  of  the  war,  and  it  has  not  been  lost  sight  of  since 
that  time.  A  not  entirely  dissimilar  naval  want  revealed 
itself  during  the  same  period  on  the  I'acific  coast.  The 
required  foothold  there  was  fortunately  secured  by  our 
late  treaty  with  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  it  now  seems 
imperative  that  the  more  obvious  necessities  of  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  should  not  be  less  carefully  provided  for.  A 
good  and  convenient  port  and  harbor,  capable  of  easy 
defence,  will  supply  that  want.  With  the  possession  of 
such  a  station  by  the  United  States,  neither  we  nor  any 
othci"  American  nation  need  longer  apprehend  injury  or 
offence  from  any  transatlantic  enemy.  I  agree  with  our 
early  statesmen  that  the  West  Indies  naturally  gravitate 
to,  and  may  be  expected  ultimately  to  be  absorbed  by  the 
continental  States,  including  our  own.  1  agree  with  them 
also  that  it  is  wise  to  leave  the  question  of  such  absorption 
to  this  process  of  natural  political  gravitation.  The 
islands  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  John's,  which  constitute  a 
part  of  the  group  called  the  Virgin  islands,  seemed  to 
offer  us  advantages  immediately  desirable,  while  their 
acquisition  could  be  secured  in  harmony  with  the  princi- 
ples to  which  I  have  alluded." 

At  this  time  the  relations  of  President  Johnson  to  the 
Senate  were  anything  but  harmonious,  and  mainly  from 
this  cause,  I  think,  the  treaty  was  rejected  in  1868,  although 
the  inhabitants  of  both  islands  had  already  voted  in  favor 
of  annexation. 

Shortly  after  Gen.  Grant's  accession  to  the  Presidency, 
he  concluded  the  negotiation  with  the  Dominican  Repub- 
lic, begun  by  Secretary  Seward  at  the  close  of  the  pre- 
ceding administration,'  of  a  treaty  of  annexation  of  so 
much  of  the  island  of  San  Domingo  as  was  not  included 
within  the  limits  of  Hayti.  As  in  the  case  of  Texas,  two 
independent  sovereignties  thus  contracted  for  the  absorp- 
tion of  one  into  the  other,  but  unlike  Texas,  San  Domingo 
was  not  to  enter  the  Union  as  one  of  the  States  that 
compose  it.  The  treaty  was  rejected  by  a  tie  vote  in  the 
Senate.  In  his  next  message  to  Congress,  the  President 
earnestly  recommended  legislative  action  in  the  same  di- 
rection. 


'  Seward's  Works,  v.  29. 


fW^-i^f 


ill 


li  :  ' 


22 


"  The  acquisition  of  San  Dominc^o,"  he  said,  •'  is  desira- 
ble because  of  its  ^eoj^raphical  position."  .  .  .  "At 
present  our  coast  trade  between  the  States  borderinj^  on 
the  Atlantic  and  those  bordering  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
is  cut  into  by  the  liahanias,  and  the  AntilU^s.  Twice  we 
must,  as  it  were,  pass  throuj^h  forcij^n  countries  to  <jct  by 
sea  from  Cicor^ia  to  the  West  coast  of  Florida."  .  .  "  The 
ac(juisition  of  vSan  Doinini^o  is  an  adherence  to  the  '  Mon- 
roe Doctrine' ;  it  is  a  measure  of  natural  protection  ;  it  is 
assertin<^  our  just  claim  to  a  controlling  inllucnce  over  the 
«^reat  commercial  traflHc  soon  to  How  from  West  to  Fi^ast 
l)y  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien." 

Conjj^ress  responded  to  these  ap{)eals  by  sending  an  able 
commission,  vScnator  Wade,  IVcsident  Andrew  D.  White, 
and  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe  of  Boston,  to  visit  San  Do- 
mint^o.  They  reported  in  favor  of  its  annexation,  but  the 
project  went  no  farther. 

The  opposition  to  Grant  in  this  matter  was  started  by 
Charles  Sumner,  then  at  the  head  of  the  Senate  Commit- 
tee on  Foreign  Relations,  who  seems  to  have  been  gov- 
erned largely  by  his  -nterest  in  the  colored  race.'  To 
them,  he  believed,  belonged  "  the  equatorial  belt."  They 
had  established  a  republic  in  Ilayti.  If  San  Domingo 
were  annexed  to  the  United  States,  Hayti  must  inevitably 
decline,  and  there  would  be  a  new  argument  for  those 
who  denied  the  capacity  of  the  negro  for  self-government. 

Down  to  the  close  of  the  reconstruction  period,  which 
followed  the  Civil  War,  there  was,  indeed,  no  time  after 
the  Louisiana  purchase  when  the  question  of  the  right 
and  policy  of  annexation,  with  respect  to  any  foreign  ter- 
ritory, was  not  determined  by  every  public  man  largely 
in  accordance  with  his  views  of  its  bearing  on  the  future 
of  the  Southern  blacks.  Grant,  himself,  was  looking  to 
San  Domingo  as  the  site  of  further  States  of  our  Union, 
peopled  and  governed  by  colonies  of  our  new  class  of 
freedmen. 

The  American  people,  in  the  words  of  Henry  Adams, 
began  the  century  with  the  "  ambition  to  use  the  entire 
continent   for    their   experiments."''      Jefferson  was  their 


■i 


'  Memoir  and  Letters,  iv,  448.        ^  History  of  the  United  States,  ii,  301. 


23 


s  (lesira- 

.  "At 
crinp^  on 

Mexico 
wice  we 
o  get  by 

.  "The 
jc  •  Mon- 
Hon  ;  it  is 
over  the 

to  East 

[f  an  able 
).  White, 
San  Do- 
1,  but  the 

arted  by 
Com  mi  t- 
een  gov- 
ice.'  To 
."  They 
Domingo 
nevitably 
for  those 
'ernment. 
)d,  which 
ime  after 
the  right 
reign  ter- 
n  largely 
le  future 
)oking  to 
r  Union, 
class  of 

y  Adams, 
he  entire 
was  their 

ites,  ii,  301. 


leader,  and  of  all  American  statesmen  he  best  understood 
and  represented  the  popidar  sentinun*  '»f  his  day.  What 
IJncoln  was  to  the  North,  .lelferson  was  to  the  country. 
But  Jefferson  had  the  larger,  though  less  balanced  mind. 
lie  was  an  idealist  and  an  of)timist.  With  e(|ual  rights 
and  opportunties  to  every  citizen,  and  to  every  State,  he 
feared  no  extension  of  territory  for  a  Union  resting  on 
community  of  interest  and  individual  liberty.  Jefferson 
never  believed  that  the  prosperity  of  the  South  wns  de- 
pendent on  the  instituti(jn  of  slavery,  but,  lor  hall  a 
centuiy,  among  his  successors  in  the  conduct  of  the 
government,  were  many  who  did.  Our  [iulicy  as  to 
amiexation,  therefore,  soon  became  a  sectional  (picstion, 
and  so  continued  until  the  Southern  negr(j  was  given 
not  only   freedom,  but  the  right  oi  suffrage. 

President  Grant's  administraticjn  in  1872,  by  nn  agree- 
ment between  one  of  our  naval  officers  and  the  chief  of 
Tatuila,  one  of  the  Samoan  islands,  obtained  the  exclusive 
[privilege  of  establishing  a  coahng  station  at  the  port  of 
Pango  Pango,  and  President  Hayes  took  possession  of 
the  privilege  ceded  in  1879. 

The  arts  of  civilization  were  introduced  into  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  by  American  missionaries  in  the  first  quarter 
of  this  century,  and  their  trade  has  always  been  largely 
with  this  country.  They  lie  three  hundred  miles  nearer 
San  Francisco  than  the  outermost  of  the  Aleutian  islands, 
which  came  to  us  as  a  part  of  the  Alaska  j)urchase.  In 
1843,  ''^w  English  officer,  without  authority,  took  posses- 
sion of  Hawaii,  in  behalf  of  the  Queen,  but  this  action 
was  promptly  disavowed  by  his  government.  Our  Sec- 
retary of  State,  Mr.  Legare,  wrote,  upon  this  event,  to 
our  minister  to  England,  that  these  islands  bore  such 
peculiar  relations  to  us  that  we  might  feel  justified  in 
interfering  by  force  to  prevent  their  conquest  by  any 
of  the  great  powers  of  Europe.'  Great  Britain  and 
France,  however,  allayed  any  ill-feeling  on  the  part  of 
our  government  by  a  convention  made  during  this  year, 

'  Whart.  Int.  Law,  Dig.,  I,  418. 


24 

by   which  each   covenanted  never  to  take  possession  of 
the  islands  or  assume  a  protectorate  over  them. 

In  1853,  Mr.  Marcy,  as  Secretary  of  State,  in  instruc- 
tions to  our  minister  to  France,  wrote  of  them  thus  :  "  It 
seems  tv)  be  inevitable  that  they  must  come  under  the 
control  of  this  Government."  Two  years  later  he  in- 
formed our  minister  to  Hawaii  that  we  would  receive 
the  transfer  of  territorial  sovereignty  of  the  islands.  In 
1868,  the  subject  was  again  brought  up,  but  Secretary 
Seward,  fresh  from  his  disappointments  with  reference  to 
the  Danish  West  Indies,  wrote  our  minister  that  the  time 
was  unfavorable  for  the  consideration  of  annexation  pro- 
positions b}'-  the  United  States,. 

By  the  treaty  of  reciprocity  in  1875,  the  two  countries 
were  drawn  closer  together,  and  the  commerce  between 
them  was  soon  doubled. 

Early  in  the  present  year,  a  treaty  of  annexation  was 
laid  before  the  Senate,  but  withdrawn  on  the  accession 
of  the  new  administration.  In  his  message  accompanying 
the  treaty,  President  Harrison  said  that  the  deposition  of 
the  Queen  had  left  but  two  courses  open  to  the  United 
States,  the  assumption  of  a  protectorate,  or  annexation. 
The  views  of  the  present  administration  may  be  inferred 
from  President  Cleveland's  first  message,  in  1S84,  in  which 
he  said,  "  I  do  not  favor  a  policy  of  acquisition  of  new  and 
distant  tcrritoi-y,  or  the  incorporation  of  remote  interests 
with  our  own." 


The  annexation  of  Canada,  so  ardently  desired  by 
Franklin  and  all  the  statesmen  of  the  Revolution,  has 
never  since  that  period  been  made  a  subject  of  formal 
diplomatic  discussion.  Its  growth  in  wealth  and  popu- 
lation, and  its  federation  into  a  great  Dommion  of  many 
provinces,  are  evidently  paving  the  way  to  independence. 
When  that  time  comes,  annexation  will  follow. 

Her  institutions  are  every  year  becoming  better  fitted 
to  coalesce  with  our  own,  as  her  provinces,  each  with  a 
life  and  history  of  its  own,  participate  by  their  represen- 
tatives in  general  legislation  at  a  common  capital,  under 
an   executive    who,   during    his    term    of   office,  is  more 


25 

secure  in  his  position  than  the  prime  minister  of  Great 
Britain,  and  hardly  more  subject  to  the  pleasure  of  the 
sovereign. 

The  French  Canadians  are  of  a  different  race  and 
tongue  and  religion  from  that  of  most  of  the  Americans 
of  the  Revolutionary  era.  But  if  thev  were  not  afraid 
to  admit  them  to  citizenship  of  the  United  States  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  surely  we  need  not  be  when  the  time 
comes,  in  the  twentieth.  The  Americans  of  to-day  are  a 
composite  race,  and  universal  religious  toleration  has 
made  us  sensible  that  men's  religious  beliefs  are  danger- 
ous to  the  community  only  when  they  are  forced  to  con- 
ceal or  suppress  them.  The  Roman  church  has  frankly 
accepted  the  right  of  evei"y  people  to  such  form  of 
government  as  they  may  choose  for  themselves,  and  the 
million  of  Catholics  in  Canada  would  be  no  more,  as 
such,  a  factor  in  American  politics  than  the  million  of 
Catholics  who  arc  lo  day  inhabitants  of  New  York,  or 
the  more  than  a  million  wh(j  are  citizens  of  New  England. 

The  different  provinces  of  Canada  are  so  situated  with 
respect  to  each  other,  and  the  natural  boundaries  of  sepa- 
ration between  most  of  them  are  such,  that  their  trade 
gravitate?  southward  to  the  United  States,  in  seeking  its 
center  of  distribution.  What  it  has  to  sell,  it  can  sell  best 
to  us.     What  it  needs  to  buy,  it  finds  best  here. 

The  immense  area  which  the  Dominion  of  Canada  now 
includes,  it  is  beyond  the  powers  of  any  mere  colony  or 
group  ot  colonies  to  bring  under  the  full  influences  of 
civilization.  As  fast  as  it  approaches  that  end,  so  fast  it 
also  api)roaches  the  necessity  of  independence  of  Great 
Britain. 

It  is  probable  that  Great  Britain  would  make  little  ob- 
jection to  the  severance  from  her  possessions  of  so  costly 
and  unicmunerative  a  dependence.  Before  the  neg(;tia- 
tion  of  the  treaty  of  Washington,  our  Secretary  of  State, 
Mr.  Fish,  in  conversation  with  Sir  Edward  Thornton,  the 
British  minister,  said  that  our  *'  Alabama  "  claims  were 
too  large  to  be  settled  in  money,  and  intimated  that  a 
cession  of  Canada  might  be  accepted  as  a  satisfactory 
adjustment.     The  reply  was  that  England  did  not  wish  to 


"%^< 


I--/,  i-1 


26 


keep  Canada,  but  could  not  part  with  it  without  the  con- 
sent of  its  population.' 

The  original  area  of  the  United  States,  before  the 
Louisana  purchase,  was  perhajjs,  a  million  of  square 
miles.''  That  acquisition,  and  the  subsequent  cession  of 
the  Floridas,  much  more  than  doubled  our  territory. 
Texas  then  came  to  us  with  three  hundred  thousand 
square  miles,  and  Mexico,  in  1848  luid  1853,  ceded  a  some- 
what greater  number.  In  Alaska,  wc  received,  in  1867, 
an  addition  of  over  half  a  million,  and  thus  our  total  area 
now  is  a  little  more  than  3,500,000  square  miles. 

Canada  and  Newfoundland  cover  about  the  same  extent 
of  territory,  or  over  3,524,000  square  miles,  estimating  for 
part  of  British  Columbia  not  yet  accurately  surveyed. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  latest  authority  on 
American  geography  was  the  American  Gazetteer,  pub- 
lished in  London,  in  1776.  It  gave  the  total  area  of  the 
North  American  continent,  with  a  precision  not  aimed  at 
by  modern  statisticians,  at  3,699,087  square  miles.  The 
founders  of  the  United  States  did  not  dream  that  the 
narrow  line  of  States  they  had  drawn  together  could  in  a 
century  come  to  include  a  territory  of  three  millions  and 
a  half  of  square  miles,  and  still  have  beyond  them  another 
area  of  equal  magnitude,  and  much  of  it  of  equal  fertility 
and  natural  resources,  into  which  to  expand,  in  the  next 
century.  But  that  expansion  I  believe  it  is  our  destiny 
to  accomplish,  and  by  no  other  means  than  those  of  peace 
and  mutual  good  will.  The  good  faith  of  the  nation  was 
pledged  by  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  against  further 
extension  to  the  south^vard,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether 
this  is  still  binding  upon  us;''  but  the  North  American 
continent  with  every  island  on  the  east,  and  the  Hawaiian 
group  upon  the  west,  all  bound  to  it  as  satellites  to  their 

'  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles  Sumner,  iv,  409. 

'  This  is  the  estimate  given  in  Morse's  American  Geography,  published  in 
1792. 

■''  See  Report  of  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  of  Dec.  22,  1892, 
on  Senate  Bill  No.  1218. 


P 
n 

Is 


ill 


^7 

planet,  will,  if  we  continue  in  our  historic  policy  as  to  an- 
nexation, eventually  come  under  the  Hag  of  the  United 
States. 


IW\ 


11  i 


It  has  been  argued  with  great  force  by  an  eminent 
authority  on  American  constitutional  law,'  that  our  plan 
of  government  makes  no  provision  for  a  colonial  system. 
But  (he  relations  of  an  extra-territorial  possession  to  the 
United  States  can  never  be  those  of  a  colony  to  a 
Euro[)ean  power.  Such  a  colony  has  generally  been 
treated  as  a  dependency  held  for  the  benefit  of  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  mother  country.  Its  trade,  con- 
ducted by  others  and  for  others,  has  brought  little  beneht 
to  its  own  inhabitants,  t(j  whom  the  navigati(Mi  laws  im- 
posed ui)on  them  by  a  distant  power  have  often  seemed 
a  kind  of  spoliation,  under  tlie  name  of  protection. 

But  any  possessions,  separated  from  the  continent, 
which  the  United  States  may  acquire,  can  rely  on  being 
governed  under  some  system  devised  for  the  interest  of 
all  concerned,  and  administered  by  their  own  inhabitants, 
so  far  as  they  may  show  a  capacity  for  self-government. 

Nor  yet  need  we  fear  that  the  United  States  would  not, 
it  the  occasion  demanded,  rule  with  a  strong  hand,  when 
w^e  recall  the  almost  despotic  system  of  administration 
which  under  the  administration  of  Jefferson  was  forced 
upon  the  unwilling  inhabitants  of  the  Louisiana  and 
Orleans  territories,  and  maintained  until  they  had  learned 
the  real  qualities  and  conditions  of  American  citizenship. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  cost  of  such  of  our  territory 
as  has  come  to  us  by  purchase,  has  been,  in  all,  as  follows : 


\- ' 


180;;.  Louisiana, !«^i5,ooo,000 

1819,  Florida, 5,000,000 

1848,  Caiiforuia  ami  Ni;w  Mexico, 15,000,000 

1853,  Arizona, 10,000,000 

1807,  Alaska, 7,200,000 

Total $52,200,000 


■^^t^v:»i^^^M5l^'^'f^^».?l 


28 


It  has  been  cheaply  boug^ht,  even  if  we  add  to  these 
sums  the  expenditures  in  the  SeminnL  War,  which  tol- 
lowed  the  Florida  purchase,  and  of  the  Mexican  War, 
which  had  so  close  a  connection  with  those  which  came 
next. 

The  policy  of  annexation,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War,  was  mainly  pressed  by  Southern  influence,  and 
largely  in  the  interest  of  slavery.  But  sLivery  would 
never  have  been  overthrown,  had  not  the  country  spread 
out  over  the  Northern  portions  of  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase and  the  l-'acific  coast.  It  was  the  new  States,  on 
new  territor}^  that  turned  the  balance  against  the  South 
in  the  final  struggle.  Into  them  poured  the  tide  of  immi- 
gration which  Southern  statesmen  had  vainly  hoped  the 
severity  of  Northern  winters  would  repel. 

A  Congress  of  Southern  Governors  was  held  at  Rich- 
mond in  April  of  this  year,  to  devise  means  to  attract 
emigrants  to  their  section  of  the  country.  I  hope  their 
plans  may  prosper,  but  there  is  no  stronger  power  in 
directing  movements  of  pO[)ulatiG-  'han  that  of  sentiment, 
especially  when  resting  on  tradition.  A  public  sentiment 
against  slavery  kept  immigration  from  the  Southern  States 
while  slavery  endured,  and  a  traditionary  feeling  keeps  it 
from  them  still.  Another  generation  must  pass  away 
before  the  Carolinas  or  Arkansas  will  be  as  attractive  as 
Nebraska  and  Oregon,  to  those  who  seek  new  homes 
across  the  sea. 


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